Had Moore been around before the Civil War, he most assuredly would have found ETHICAL arguments in favor of the buying, owning and perhaps even torturing human beings.
Regarding homosexuality, Moore says it's Ok to welcome them into your home, but not to attend their weddings. He cautions pastors to recognize that: "more than likely people in your congregation that struggle themselves or love people that struggle or have a neighbor who walks in that lifestyle" suggesting that all gays struggle. (Wonder how he feels about transgendered folk at his dinner table, or Jews, or atheists?)
But when it comes to Snowflake babies, he is not just accepting of embryo adoption, he ENCOURAGES it! Hallelujah: More soldiers for Christ! A totally helpless source of converts up for grabs for those who can pay the price tag for high end, high quality merchandise rather than accept into their hearts and homes the children of poor, unwed, possibly addicted mothers. Just as Christ himself would have encouraged! Amen,
Moore says: "Adopting an embryo is the exact same thing morally and ethically as adopting a child in any other way."
REALLY? Choosing an embryo is exactly the same as taking a child foster care? Even having a child of one's own, naturally, is not the same as taking a child from foster care. And this man calls himself an ethicist! Me thinks the man greatly confuses legally the same with morally and ethically the same,
Missing the point totally Moore goes on:
"[S]ometimes people will say, 'A Snowflake adoption is the wrong thing to do because of the ethical problems with in vitro fertilization.' That is not the case, because what is happening with Snowflake adoption is not the creation of new people through in vitro fertilization. This is actually rescuing already conceived persons who are locked away in cryogenic storage units. So adopting an embryo is the exact same thing morally and ethically as adopting a child in any other way.""The exact same thing morally and ethically as adopting a child any other way." YES, if you judge ALL adoption as unethical and immoral!
In my moral and ethical view not all adoptions are equal - not by a long shot!
Adoptions run the gamut from downright illegal black market trade is trafficked, kidnap victims, to children who were coerced from mothers with lies and false promises ranging from telling mothers who cannot read English that their children are coming to america (or Western Europe) for an education, to falsely promising American mothers an "open adoption" or threatening that they will have to repay medical expenses if they do not go through with a relinquishment.
Far too many adoptions involve coercion and exploitation and profiteering. Far too few adoptions are in the best interest of the child. Every child has a right to be remain with a capable parent or relative before being placed with unrelated strangers and given a new identity.
Any and every adoption - even necessary placements - that falsifies a child's authentic identity and denies him access to that information, is an act not that child's best interest, and that includes step-parent adoptions in 49 of 51 states in this country.
Every child who is taken from a perfectly capable mother who has been convinced that she is too young or too poor or simply not of the "proper" martial status to raise a child, is immoral and unethical. Every child taken by the state to meet a quota or gain increased federal funding is immoral.
Moore and his ilk are not ignorant to the fact that children are priced by skin color, age and health and thus frozen embryos of WHITE babies from non-addicted parents are of value. They are also not ignorant of the corruption and child trafficking for adoption that has closed countries like Guatemala or the abuse of adopted children that closed adoptions from Russia.
Moore and others of his persuasion turn a blind eye to all of these despicable practices not out of ignorance that they exist. After all, Southern Baptists and other fundamental Christians are all well aware of the uproar over failed adoption attempts of over-zealous missionaries in Haiti. And, they are all now aware of Kathryn Joyce's expose, The Baby Catchers.
No, it is not ignorance of the lack of regulation in the multi-billion dollar adoption industry and the commercialization of "Snowflake" embryo selling... it is the firm conviction that the end justifies the means.
In their case, the end justifies getting a convert by any means possible. But make no mistake about it. This same "end justifies the means" logic is what keeps the entire public blind to every dark aspect of adoption practice! The average person - as well as our most prestigious adoption organizations (AAC) and think tanks (Evan B. Donaldson) remain firm that DESPITE abuses, adoption is to be supported and encouraged, because in the end, the child is getting a good life...probably better economically, than what he might have had otherwise.
These pro-adoptionsist will stand loud and proud and declare that "THE MAJORITY" of adoptions are in fact happily ever after, DESPITE a few ugly "anomalies" and despite recognizing that adoption is "the wild west" and anyone can hang a shingle" and arrange adoptions, not one piece of legislation has been proposed to reign in on the unregulated industry.
In adoption practice "ethical" is undefined making the term "ethical adoption" and oxymoron on a level with "civil war", "friendly fire" and "peacekeeper" bombs. Embryo adoption, like sperm or egg "donor" is an exact equivalent of "paid volunteer" - a classic oxymoron. Selling is NOT donating; buying is NOT adopting!!!
We have slipped so far down on morals that we have come to totally accept that "fees" are justifiable and paying $40,000 or more to adopt is ethical and makes sense...so it's a very easy slope from that to buying eggs, sperm and embryos, without a thought to the moral imperative against buying and selling human beings!
Adoptions are not all equal and they are certainly not all ethical.
Every adoption that pressures a mother to relinquish a newborn, every international adoption and every embryo adoption (or surrogate birth) .... is one more adoption for the purpose of filing a demand and NOT for the purpose of finding homes for children who COULD be adopted from US foster care. How are they moral equivalents, Mr.Moore?
How is buying yourself a white blue-eyed baby from parents who had the wherewithal to pay for IVF to begin with, in any way, shape or form equal to opening your heart to an older child or sibling group? How is taking a child from his culture and heritage equal to helping a child to have his needs met within his own nation by donating to charities that build schools and provide water and medical care where needed?
I wonder where Mr. Moral stands on the sale of egg and sperm and commercial surrogacy? After all, if life begins at conception then surely these practices involve selling the building blocks of life and should be far more egregious than organ selling, which is illegal because of it preys on the poor and vulnerable as does adoption. But the again, masturbation: spilling. wasting and MURDERING the seed of life has never been condemned as abortion. Yes, spare the unborn - they are marketable commodities.
And, after all, all these methods have the added bonus of being able to actually BIRTH a baby. So tell me again ho this is "exactly the same as adoption by any other means'?
Not only does one get the entire pregnancy and delivery experience, but it very conveniently makes it all to easy to never feel any necessity reveal to ANYONE - not even the human being being manufactured - that he or she is not EXACTLY THE SAME as any child created totally naturally by you, the way God intended babies to be created...(even in "wrong" tummies, sometimes).
Where is YOUR moral and ethical compass Mr. Ethicist? Mr. Ruseel D. (have a gay to dinner and buy white babies) Moore.
But what can we expect from a group who defended slavery - even quoting bible versus to support their argument. In one Baptist minister’s words, slavery “stands as an institution of God.” They claimed slaves were treated with kindness and slavery brought "heathens to a Christian land where they can hear the gospel" just as adoption does today.
